Wednesday, November 28, 2018

DC Comics has released their trade paperback and hardcover solicitations for February 2019, which is well and good and contains such interesting things as the ninth volume of Tom King's Batman (hard to believe we're already one away from the number Scott Snyder did), plus Christopher Priest's Batman vs. Deathstroke, Catwoman by Jim Balent Vol. 2, the first volume of the new Justice League Dark, and the next paperback collection of Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans.

Another one so obvious I think I thought they already did it. Collects Batman:#232, Batman #243-244, DC Special Series #15, The Brave & the Bold #159, Detective Comics #750, Batman Annual #26, Nightwing #152, Batman & Robin #23.3, and Who’s Who in the DC Universe: #13. I like that this is single issue material and not the more noted graphic novels.

With a cover by Jim Lee, this is out in March 2019, same time as Detective Comics #1000. Said to also include the first appearances of Robin, Batwoman, Bat-Mite, Batgirl, Two_Face, Riddler, Clayface, and Man-Bat, plus Martian Manhunter and more.

Issues #1-3 and #5-6 by James Tynion (previously issues #1-6). Good news is you don't have to double dip for the "Witching Hour" issues; bad news is it's awful strange to skip a chunk in the very first trade.

Includes Batman #251, 260, 286, 291-294, 321, 353, 365-366, and 400; Brave and the Bold #111, 118, 129-130, 141, and 191; Joker #1-10; Detective Comics #475-476, 504, 526, and 532; Wonder Woman #280-283 and DC Comics Presents #41 and 72. Joker #10 has never before been published (the 1970s series was canceled with issue #9), but features Joker versus the Justice League.

The classic New Teen Titans paperbacks keep rocking and rolling like they should have done from the beginning. Collects issues #10-15 and Annual #1, including the book's tie-in to Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The new run by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke, collected in paperback; issues #994-999 plus a story from Detective Comics #1000. As with Action Comics, looks like DC is restarting the trade numbering even as the issue numbers keep on.

Issues #119-128 and Green Lantern and the Flash: Faster Friends by Mark Waid, I'm actually guessing it'll end at #129 since that's the final part of a three-parter. There's a "Final Night" tie-in within. Issues #130-141 are by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, and then Waid writes #142 to about #159-ish, and then returns again for a stint in the #200s.

We lost, as you'll recall, the Impulse Omnibus solicited a while back and then canceled, but DC promised they'd release this in another format. This first new volume collects issues #1-12, plus the Flash "Dead Heat" tie-in issues, #108-111.

After the Superman and Batman volumes, this was the most likely one if it was going to happen; maybe they could do a Justice League: Zero Hour Vol. 2 that collects various Leaguers' stories (Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Aquaman, Green Arrow), but there's not another franchise all on its own, I don't think, that has enough issues to fill a trade like these do.

Another option is DC could call it, like, Deathstroke: Zero Hour and then collect the story that starts in Deathstroke, the Hunted #0 — like, it wouldn't be as time-travel Zero Hour-y connected as the others, but DC marketing could still make the case across a variety of titles that this "came out" of Zero Hour, so to speak. The Green Arrow title's another candidate for that.

This is Justice League America #92 and #0, Justice League International #67-68, Justice League Task Force #15-16 and #0, Ray #0, Extreme Justice #0, and Guy Gardner, Warrior #0, and fills a couple of interesting gaps — it comes immediately after both Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America Vol. 2 and Justice League Task Force Vol. 1: The Purification Plague. There is within here the three-part Zero Hour tie-in story "Return of the Hero" written by Christopher Priest that introduced time-lost hero Triumph, but also epilogues to "Judgment Day" (from that Wonder Woman trade), up to and including the first-ever collected issue of Extreme Justice. The Ray and Guy Gardner issues are welcome kind of oddball additions, maybe not entirely related to the main story except that the characters appear in the other books.

Writers here include Priest, Dan Vado, Mark Waid (the main writer credited, though he only does one JLTF issue), and Gerard Jones. As we've discussed before, DC is at a crossroads now where they've collected up to where they could do a Wonder Woman and the Justice League Vol. 3 collection (especially around the new movie), but it'd be totally written by Jones. On the other hand, they're well in place to release another Justice League Task Force trade now, totally written by Priest.

The solicitation is way off, talking about post-Zero Hour (which came in the middle of this series), but it seems clear this is finally a hardcover collection of Keith Giffen and Tom and Mary Bierbaum's "five years later" Legion relaunch. One of DC's modern classics, a gritty, lauded take on the Legion, it's about time this was collected. Giffen was on the book until the mid-issue #30s, so if this is #1-12 and an annual, it can probably be done in three books.

This was the end of the original Nightwing series (the one started by Chuck Dixon), issues #140-153, and collected in the books Freefall and The Great Leap (see my 2009 reviews). Obviously this is being collected in paperback in one volume because of Tomasi, but art is no slouch here either, by Rags Morales and Don Kramer. I liked these, saying almost ten years ago that "Peter J. Tomasi offers the most respectful, appropriate rendition of Nightwing that we've seen in a long, long time" and that "The Great Leap cements Peter Tomasi as a writer to watch."

Pushing this pretty hard as DC's definitive Captain Marvel origin du jour, this is a hardcover deluxe-size edition of the New 52 Justice League backup story, due in August, whereas a paperback of the same will be out in February.

Said to be issues #7-12 and the annual, but with Dan DiDio's Sideways ending with issue #13, surely that'll be in there too. With guest-writing by Grant Morrison and appearances by the Seven Soldiers and other significant multiversal characters.

This was, in essence, a part sequel to the Suicide Squad: Secret Files anthology miniseries from a couple years ago, with Jai Nitz writing the "Suicide Squad Black" story (after his El Diablo story in the previous) and Mike W. Barr writing another Katana story (also after the previous). While I appreciate Barr and Nitz writing the (version of the) characters they created, both previous stories were relatively troubled, such not to make me run out to get these two new trades.

It's interesting that DC labeled this one "El Diablo" when it's supposedly a Suicide Squad Black story proper (which includes El Diablo); I'm surprised they think El Diablo's name carries that much cache, I'm guessing after the movie, but good if it does.

The Katana half of the recent Suicide Squad: Black Files miniseries, by Mike W. Barr. Solicitations suggest Barr is writing within his own continuity (or major elements of former Outsiders history have been grafted on Rebirth).

Collects stories from Swamp Thing Winter Special 2018 and Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant. Tom King and Brian Azzarello are here, plus Len Wein's final Swamp Thing story with art by Kelley Jones. I think this'll mark the first collection of a story from the Walmart-exclusive books.

Continuing DC's new collections of the 2008 Titans series (not my favorite but maybe most like the new TV series?), this is issues #12-23 by Sean McKeever (also JT Krul), the Deathtrap and Fractured trades. That issue #23 is by Eddie Berganza; with issue #24, Titans became a villains-focused team book by Eric Wallace; hard to say if the collections are going to continue beyond this one.

Judd Winick's twelve-issue miniseries, following in some respects his Superman/Shazam: First Thunder mini, plus the Brave New World story in the wake of Infinite Crisis. This is when Freddy Freeman was "Shazam" and Billy Batson took on the Wizard's role, with a painterly style by Howard Porter. Not a bad miniseries necessarily, but at this point DC is collecting so much Captain Marvel minutia that they really need to do something special with Jerry Ordway's Power of Shazam.

This does not, as I'd hoped, include John Byrne's Wonder Woman-connected Genesis event miniseries, though it does include the Wonder Woman tie-in issue, plus significant JSA and Donna Troy material. Issues #125-136, finishing this collection set. Hey, who knew Christopher Priest did two issues right after Byrne?

Just the first 12 issues of the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run, the Blood and Guts trades. It is a good introduction to the Azzrello run, though far from complete and it ends on a cliffhanger; maybe that's right for these introductory Essential Editions.

29 comments:

Is there a link for the (presumably Edelweiss) Summer 2019 previews? I have the spring one as someone kindly provided it before but for the life of me can’t figure out how to use their filtering system to find anything else.

The links for the placeholder versions of DC's catalogs (the final versions are listed at https://www.edelweiss.plus/#publisher=DCCO&folderID=8749&page=1) aren't private, but they're not exactly easy to find either. At the main www.edelweiss.plus page, you're supposed to click on "browse", then, on "catalogs" and finally on "all publishers", after which you can use the search engine to look for "DC".

Oof, going to be an expensive couple of months - Grant Morrison's Green Lantern and Batman Vol 2, and the new volumes of Flash by Waid and (finally!) Wonder Woman by Rucka moving straight to the top of my shopping list. The deluxe version of Justice might be pretty enough to make me rebuy it too. I missed the new 52 shazam collection when that came out, so might pick it up this time around, I'm sure i read (possibly here) that it was excellent.

Anyone confident to make any predictions if the Detective Comics deluxe editions are over with the new renumbering?

I think the deluxe editions are over with the new renumbering, but we'll know for sure in a couple months. Looks like for instance Christopher Priest's Justice League is getting its own "omnibus," so it wouldn't make sense to also do that deluxe necessarily.

I'm going to selfishly assume you combined the Feb solicits & Edelweiss catalog together because of how excited I was on Facebook about the catalog. Thanks!

Very excited about Flash by Waid v6, Wonder Woman by Rucka v3, and the second Morrison Batman Omnibus. Those are all bought on the first day. The first Morrison omni was oh so well put together, I have very high hopes DC can thread the needle on collecting the three different pieces of the story in a reasonable way (v1 and the assumed v3 are straight linear stories; v2 is kind of nuts).

In the Edelweiss solicits, they also have Flash by Johns v6 (Rebirth, Blackest Night, 1-6) which will presumably be followed by v7 (7-12, Flashpoint). Rogues' Revenge is missing, but it also doesn't really entirely fit anywhere, either (obviously, it goes between v5 and v6 - I meant narratively). This suggests, if nothing else, there's no reason DC wouldn't do Flash by Waid v7 (DC doesn't seem to worry about a jump in narrative between v5 and v6 by Johns).

I'm not too excited about the price or format for Legion: 5 Years Later. I've never read the stories, but I've always been a bit curious. Even w/steep discounts, that's still a lot of money. I guess it isn't surprising since they used that format for the Superboy & the Legion collections, but ugh.

Impulse and JL: ZH are both collections I'll probably pick up, but am not as off-the-walls excited about as Flash by Waid or WW by Rucka. Glad to see DC continuing to collect 90s events in some fashion. Gives me hope for a few other 90s events getting a nice omni or collections (Armageddon 2001).

Complete side note, but this should be of interest to many who lurk and post here:http://theomnibuscollector.com/post/177913582296/the-second-annual-dc-most-wanted-omnibus-secret

1) Something else has to be in that Swamp Thing book. Current contents are an 80-page giant and a 12-page Wal-Mart story. It gives me great hope that the other WM exclusives will see a wider audience, but it's still too rich for my blood since I already have the King/Wein prestige floppy.

2) Something curious (and infuriating) with that Kirby book: Sandman #2-6 weren't collected in the Simon/Kirby Sandman HC a few years back, although #1 was - it was mostly a Golden Age book. Kirby only did covers on #2-3, so I would be surprised to see those full issues. Most of the other stuff was in the Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2, and his "Super Powers" runs were just collected in a standalone volume. In fact, this book consolidates most of the Kirby HCs we saw around 2007 - Demon, OMAC, Losers, and the second Omnibus. You've also got the hard-to-find Spirit World and Days of the Mob HCs accounted for here, too. (The only thing missing, surprisingly, is Kirby's Kobra #1.) Again, duplicates a lot of what I already have - I'd be better off just tracking down the Spirit World HC.

3) That Outsiders collection is almost certainly going to be delayed - DC embarrassingly cancelled the book the same week in-house ads promised its December release. Oops! Bryan Hill promises it's going to be resolicited once the book is updated to reflect a few forthcoming continuity shake-ups - good news for us timeline wonks.

4) Interesting that they are joint-billing Flash on the Impulse trade - makes sense for a volume with a generous crossover, but what does that augur for Vol. 2?

5) Nightwing by Peter Tomasi includes Nightwing's (tenuous) tie-in to Batman RIP, tossing Two-Face into the mix. Trades and single issues of this aren't easy to find, so good on DC for keeping it in print and giving Tomasi a headliner. I get a feeling that he was given Detective as an apology for losing Superman (and, sort of, Super Sons) to Bendis, but Tomasi is an underrated reliable writer.

6) Allow me, too, to beat the Ordway drum with you. I've held off on scouring back issues bins because I *know* something has to be coming.

7) No more trades from Chuck Dixon's Robin, though... not edgy enough in a post-Titans "f--- Batman" age? No third volume of Barr's "Batman & The Outsiders," either, which should be an easy sell with Young Justice's third-season subtitle.

I still have hope for a new Dixon Robin trade. Sadly, sometimes there are huge gaps in time between collections of these runs. Just look at Suicide Squad. It is taking forever for the last book to be collected but it is solicited for next year.

The third volume of Barr's Batman and the Outsiders was listed in the previous catalog, and it's slated for April.

As for Flash/Impulse: Runs in the Family, I think they're simply trying to make it more sellable by taking advantage of the fact that there are 4 Flash issues in it. They won't be able to do the same for the next volume (assuming it will collect Impulse #13-27 and a story from Secret Origins 80-Page Giant #1, which would have been the second half of the cancelled omnibus), though.

About Justice League: Zero Hour, just an observation: Waid actually wrote two of the Justice League Task Force issues in it (#15 and #0), and he remained on the series until #20, with Priest co-writing his last three issues. If DC intends to release a second volume of JLTF, I think it should start with either #0 or #17, because #13-16 don't read well without the rest of the crossovers they take part in.

Those JLTF issues I think are covered between the second Wonder Woman and the Justice League collection and Justice League: Zero Hour. I'd just like to see DC continue to collect JLTF from there, whomever the writer.

Hey, it’s me, the guy who complained about a lack of Rucka Wonder Woman Book Three every month! Good on ya DC.

Looks like DC wants to steer clear of Grayson’s Nightwing, which is understandable as I remember a lot of drama with Tarantula and Blockbuster the fan base hated. Tomasi is a fine replacement, been looking for a Great Leap reprint forever.

In terms of trade dress, i’m betting the new volume 1’s will look like the NAOH books and Snyder’s Justice League, i.e. black with title and subtitle aligned to the enter, and a small character portrait at the top. I do wonder if and when longer runners like Batman and Flash will switch over, since DC has never been a fan of releasing trades numbered higher than 10-12.

Batman Vol. 8: Cold Days looks like Justice League Vol. 1: Totality, big logo and then volume title on the left much like the current comics. I think there was an experimental phase with the trade dress for a couple of volumes, but that seems to be what they've settled on.

Whilst I am disappointed that just like the Cass Cain Batgirl run, the Robin trades have seemingly ended, I must admit that reading some of them has been a chore. There’s so much crossover material in Robin that the trades suffer terribly. It’s a shame as there are later chunks of the Robin run that were much more self contained but we likely won’t get there now.

I’m sure I’ve seen solicits for other Rebirth deluxe volume 4’s in the past. Maybe volume 4 of each title will be it?

On the one hand, the Rucka WW trade (basically a year late) suggests that DC can always start these collections back up. On the other, Robin always seemed like the *best* use of these complete collections and they're just not going anywhere, so . . .

I have no idea what the sales are like on these things, but I wonder if DC's continual starting and stopping of the various titles is having a knock-on effect where people aren't jumping too hard into new collections since they assume they won't go very far (see: Kyle Raynor v3 being cancelled)

I am really hoping they come out with a Flash by Waid book 7. The chain lightning story was one of my favorites growing up. I didn't really care too much for the whole evil twin part but I really loved seeing all those speedsters from the different eras teaming up. I loved how Waid really embraced the idea of the Flash's legacy.

It really feels like there are a bunch of titles missing from this list. Where are the new Jack of Fables, Hellblazer and the rest of the 4 other Legion series that they were collecting. Amazon even has the next Hellblazer volume up for pre-order.

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